By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
Earlier this January, Port Isabel City officials, Mayor Martin Cantu Jr and Fire Marshell John Sandoval, met with three companies regarding the Laguna Madre Little League Park Project.
According to Cantu, the plans for this project include adding four fields to Laguna Madre Park, located by the Laguna Madre Youth Center, as well as a walking trail, exercise equipment and a “universal playground.”
“The softball-sized field is built to universal design which includes poured-in-place baselines that would allow an individual in a wheelchair or with mobility issues to be able to utilize the field. There is also universal design playground equipment being added as inclusiveness was at the forefront of this project design,” stated Sandoval.
Cantu stated that the three companies were “Hanson Engineering, SSP Design and Field Turf.” According to Sandoval, they discussed the project’s schedule. He confirmed that they were still planning to re-open the park “before the start of little league season,” this year.
“It’s a daunting task, but the engineer did say they were going to try to do their best to have some of the fields ready to go for this coming little league season,” said Sandoval, who clarified that the season would begin in late February.
Currently, Laguna Madre Park is closed as, according to Sandoval, groundwork is now being laid for the fields. He also said there could be delays in installing lighting fixtures for the fields due to the retailers’ lack of stock, but that it wasn’t too big of a worry to the City because most games are to be played during the daytime.
“Our ultimate goal is to at least have the fields ready so that our kids can play on them,” said Sandoval.
The project is currently going on three years now. Sandoval said this is because it was a “phased out” project in conjunction with Texas Parks and Wildlife [TPWD], who provided a portion of the funding.
“This is a two-phase project and required two different cycles of funding from Texas Parks and Wildlife [TPWD], including our match as well,” said Sandoval.
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